One thing people here seem to not realise is the core stability/strength required to play tennis means having washboard abs is basically an irrelevance. Washboard abs are an indication you're super lean, not that you're strong. When you see someone with a flat stomach - they're holding it that way.

If you look at top sportspeople in sports that require core strength when they are relaxed they will mostly have a bulge - those are relaxed powerful muscles, not a gut like some people moronically suggest Federer has when his shirt isn't hanging straight down from his pecs.

I've stood next to Safin a few years back (in Los Gatos, CA) and was taken aback at his height (some 5-6 inches taller than me). The following year (same location), Isner walked very close to where I was standing. His height seemed quite unreal/surreal -- my eye level was at his chest level.

I've taken pictures with Ferrer and Berdych. Ferrer is actually pretty short, 5'9" and he has massive calves. Berdych is really tall, and also have super defined calves. I also took a picture with Gulbis, and saw Dolgopolov up really close. I shook Stakhovsky's hand, and it was really soft, like he had no callus' on hand. I was able to stand really close to Rafa, Murray, and Federer. They all seem to carry this aura of invincibility with them. Its quite mind numbing.

went to Miami a few years back, I didn't know many of the players outside of top 20 back then, but you could tell a pro player walking around on site vs. everyone else walking around. obviously the gear they're carrying around is a dead give away, but besides that, all of them had large defined calves, crazy low bf %, were very tanned, and carried a confident athletic vibe about them. they don't look like normal people when you see them in real life.

One thing people here seem to not realise is the core stability/strength required to play tennis means having washboard abs is basically an irrelevance. Washboard abs are an indication you're super lean, not that you're strong. When you see someone with a flat stomach - they're holding it that way.

If you look at top sportspeople in sports that require core strength when they are relaxed they will mostly have a bulge - those are relaxed powerful muscles, not a gut like some people moronically suggest Federer has when his shirt isn't hanging straight down from his pecs.

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That is so true. I was watching Cibulkova practice last summer and thought she had a bit of a belly, then her shirt flew up. Omg that core was massive. It was all muscle. I think that massive core (along with muscular thighs and butt) is how she makes up for her lack of height. A lot of the WTA players have this. I think that's partly how they compensate for the fact that it's harder for them to build upper body strength (or they don't want to have manly arms).

One thing people here seem to not realise is the core stability/strength required to play tennis means having washboard abs is basically an irrelevance. Washboard abs are an indication you're super lean, not that you're strong. When you see someone with a flat stomach - they're holding it that way.

If you look at top sportspeople in sports that require core strength when they are relaxed they will mostly have a bulge - those are relaxed powerful muscles, not a gut like some people moronically suggest Federer has when his shirt isn't hanging straight down from his pecs.

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This is good news for fat people. i.e "No man, I don't have a gut.... it's relaxed muscle."

One thing people here seem to not realise is the core stability/strength required to play tennis means having washboard abs is basically an irrelevance. Washboard abs are an indication you're super lean, not that you're strong. When you see someone with a flat stomach - they're holding it that way.

If you look at top sportspeople in sports that require core strength when they are relaxed they will mostly have a bulge - those are relaxed powerful muscles, not a gut like some people moronically suggest Federer has when his shirt isn't hanging straight down from his pecs.

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Maybe because he was on a holiday but Federer's stomach seems quite big and flaccid here. I agree that washboard abs just means you don't have much body fat and you may not have it even if you have great core strength. However, the kind of tummy shown here is not a good thing either for an athlete. It seems now Federer is looking after his core muscle more than before. Remember this unique warm up in Indian wells? It is core exercise.

...Maybe because he was on a holiday but Federer's stomach seems quite big and flaccid here. I agree that washboard abs just means you don't have much body fat and you may not have it even if you have great core strength.

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You're looking at the with the wrong glasses on. If Federer had a flabby gut he wouldn't have sculpted line where I've circled below. He's wearing shorts that are hanging low and his gut doesn't even rest on them.

Look at his serratus muscles too. People with flabby guts wont normally have those showing I'd have thought since visible serratus and flabby guts are caused by the opposite thing.

People are clueless about this type of thing. Fed has very low bf %. He appears "tubby' in that image because he is completely relaxed/slouching and lighting

The 5 pictures below were all taken minutes apart:

It's lighting, angle, posture, tensing, salt intake, ect. can affect how you look at any particular instance.You can read an article about this here. It is a very big aspect of all the before+after pics you see with weight loss junk.

Fed is always unusually relaxed/slouched. That is why he looks that way.

Don't seem to get within 15m of the current top 10 on the practice courts people seem to worship them too much.

My favorite was managing to get 1st row to watch Mecir at AO as no one could remember him, even playing on 2nd court in the early 90's though he was a legend. I left grand stadium because some chicks where trying. Can't remember who, they where cute and tried hard, but ATP is where it's at.

My favorite was Becker as he was meant to be a man mountain but I was bigger and stronger at about same age, but he played much better and had the chicks. He seemed to hate tennis though.

My worst moment was bagging Woodbridge pretty bad before realising his coach was was sitting in front of me. I never really meant to be mean, but he played like WTA.

I'd always recommend to go to outside courts at an GS or major and watch some top 20-30 players close up. Then you'll realise how pathetic you play against someone who's unlikely to break the top 16. Even the juniors are awesome. Most people won't know the top 50 so you can definitively get about 3m away unless they're WTA and have great T!ts.

I've been 6ft away from Fed. He's very slim. Upper body is slim but you can see that there are lean muscles on the chest, shoulders and back. Not bulging muscles. Upper arm has very little mass, but lower arm (on the hitting arm) is larger than the upper arm. Legs are generally lean but muscular, more so than the upper body. Calves are muscular. A very balanced physique, not the modern male (particularly, American) where arms are the same size as legs due to time spent lifting dumbells in the gym. And no tennis player has the skinny calves problem as far as I have seen.

Monfils was arms length from me in Montreal a few years ago. He is actually really big, and one of my friends is 6'6' 250 so it isn't like I have never seen someone that size in person before. Looks like a rake on TV but he is actually really solid, it is just his height that throws you for a loop.

I've walked besides Nadal, Fed, and Sharapova at IW. They changed it this year, which is kind of lame. You don't get as close to the players, which is probably smart because of the safety issues.

I'm 6' 1" 1/2 and Maria had a 1/2 inch on me. Just really, really tall.
Nadal's legs look much longer in person. He has really long legs. Dude is a beast. He's a big guy. Closer to 6' 2" than his listed 6'1".

Nole has what looks like about a 29" waste. He was practicing with his shirt off. Huge shoulder muscles. Thin dude. Incredible physique.

Murray is the tallest of the big four. All of their calves and legs are extremely muscular.

Stood next to Berdych in 2010, and I was like who's this 18 year old. Fookin' 'ell it's Tomas. Total baby face.

IW wells was mind-boggling for a tennis fanatic. It was like walking around a rock show, oh, there's Jagger, there's The Edge, oh, there's Eddie Vedder. But they were our favorite tennis players. The vibe had changed a lot this year. They've added on a lot and there's more distance between fans and players. I think the golden days are over. . . watching Murray practice serves with Cahill while my wife and I were sitting a concrete step literally ten feet from him.

I'm 6' 1" 1/2 and Maria had a 1/2 inch on me. Just really, really tall.
Nadal's legs look much longer in person. He has really long legs. Dude is a beast. He's a big guy. Closer to 6' 2" than his listed 6'1".

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Wat?

It's sometimes debatable whether Nadal should even be listed at 6 ft 1 much less 6 ft 2. He is clearly shorter than the other 3 in the big 4. Murray recently said that his height is 6 ft 2 rather than 6 ft 3 as he is listed.

I have seen all of the top players in person many times. On the men's side Federer, Djokovic and Nadal are all taller and skinnier than they appear on tv. The tv tends to squish them and make them appear heavier. Djokovic in particular looked a lot taller and skinnier than he does on tv.

It's sometimes debatable whether Nadal should even be listed at 6 ft 1 much less 6 ft 2. He is clearly shorter than the other 3 in the big 4. Murray recently said that his height is 6 ft 2 rather than 6 ft 3 as he is listed.

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I've also seen Nadal from pretty close by: I'm a tad over 6'2 myself and he looks more like 6'-6'1 (certainly not a full 6'1). I've seen pictures where Murray looks shorter than Djokovic (though it could be posture, shoes, etc.), so Murray a tad under 6'3 is a possibility. Sharapova is nowhere near 6'2. She looks shorter than Fed in several pictures I've seen, maybe even shorter than 6'1.

I also saw Troicki in Cincy 2012. He looks around 6'3, only got a passing glimpse of him. Berdych walked right past me through the crowd and I didn't even notice it was him until I took a second look and saw some of his entourage. Dude is massive, definitely around 6'5 or so. He was wearing a jacket with the collar up and sunglasses I guess to sort of disguise himself in the crowd. It worked, since almost nobody noticed him except one woman who yelled "Hi Tomas!" to which he replied "Hello" back.

I was a ballboy for a few challenger events(both men's and women's) a few years ago...

Generally speaking, the men were tall (pretty frequently someone would be eye to eye with me, or even taller-- and I was 6'2" to 6'3" at the time.) Most had strong calves and cores, but were lean overall. A few of the shorter guys were more squarely built, but everyone there was pretty lean. There wasn't really a variance between the singles and doubles players.

For the women, there was more variance. Many were average height or even a bit short, but every once and a while you'd encounter an amazon-like figure. The conditioning seemed to vary more with the women, some were incredibly fit and could run for days, others seemed to lack conditioning. A few doubles specialists were clearly not as well conditioned as they would need to be to have success in singles.

So overall both had some very well conditioned athletes, although there was a bit more variance with the women, especially some of the doubles-only players.

It's sometimes debatable whether Nadal should even be listed at 6 ft 1 much less 6 ft 2. He is clearly shorter than the other 3 in the big 4. Murray recently said that his height is 6 ft 2 rather than 6 ft 3 as he is listed.

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Wrong, wrong, and wrong. But right about Murray. Years ago, after I had stood close to him, I wrote that he wasn't 6' 3"; funny that he confirms that. IIRC, Masha is always listed at 6' 2", and that she is. Perhaps 6' 1" and 3/4. Nadal is at least 6' 1". Sorry.

Wrong, wrong, and wrong. But right about Murray. Years ago, after I had stood close to him, I wrote that he wasn't 6' 3"; funny that he confirms that. IIRC, Masha is always listed at 6' 2", and that she is. Perhaps 6' 1" and 3/4. Nadal is at least 6' 1". Sorry.

I don't think he is. Especially when I notice how he is barely taller than Wawrinka who is listed at 6 ft. I remember when they did the get together on downing street at WTF 2011 with David Cameron. David is listed at 6 ft 1 and he was about the same height as Murray who is 6 ft 3 and clearly taller than Nadal.

People are clueless about this type of thing. Fed has very low bf %. He appears "tubby' in that image because he is completely relaxed/slouching and lighting

The 5 pictures below were all taken minutes apart:

It's lighting, angle, posture, tensing, salt intake, ect. can affect how you look at any particular instance.You can read an article about this here. It is a very big aspect of all the before+after pics you see with weight loss junk.

Fed is always unusually relaxed/slouched. That is why he looks that way.

Quite amazing, I must admit. It's quite unbelievable the pictures were taken within an hour. Maybe the haircut made him look ripped then?

Some people have big tummy even if they are not fat. I guess Federer was just chilling out and relaxing during a holiday in that picture. He is also in his 30s so can grow his stomach quite easily. Of course, once the season starts, he'll be in shape, but even professional athletes get out of shape while they are not training.

LOL I love how people are shocked that tennis players have low BF. There is no sport on earth you can play for 5-6 hours straight then a couple days later you have to do it all over again. Even marathon runners get a longer break. Tennis is one of the most grueling sports ever considering you want to be strong but have to manage the long cardio sessions and crazy schedule. To work out and maintain muscle mass thought a catabolic state and play through injuries etc.

And Federer chubby? LMAO the guy is one of the most fit players on tour. He goes through multiple practice partners while training in Dubai in crazy hot conditions for many hours every day. The guy is a race horse.

Quite amazing, I must admit. It's quite unbelievable the pictures were taken within an hour. Maybe the haircut made him look ripped then?

Some people have big tummy even if they are not fat. I guess Federer was just chilling out and relaxing during a holiday in that picture. He is also in his 30s so can grow his stomach quite easily. Of course, once the season starts, he'll be in shape, but even professional athletes get out of shape while they are not training.

Sat right next to Ryan Harrison last year on the bench. He's taller than me, but in terms of build, he looks a lot more slender than on TV. He seemed more good athletic build than stocky look he has on TV. TV really does add some pounds to you. Lol

Just fyi, don't hate Fed fanboiz: Fed comes off as kind of a jerk in person. He just got out from the ESPN booth at Cincy, so I heard the end of his tv interview with Pam Shriver et al. He definitely puts on a false air of humility for the camera, in person he's more gruff or aloof in a regal kind of way. Though maybe one can't really blame him since he has to deal with hordes of fans wanting his autograph all the time.

Novak is definitely more "chill" in person, warmer and more affable with his fans. Not sure why people say he needs to work to get attention, there were also swarms of autograph-hunters around him wherever he went.

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Keep in mind that it all depends on what day it is...when it comes to how well they are acting towards people they don't know. They are just like us, we wake in a different mood sometimes and just don't feel like dealing with the world.

Went to WTA event, noticed how big their hands are in contrast to the normal woman' hands. Some looked normal size.

Bobby is right, its silly to use vacation photos to make a statement about Federer's fitness or BF.

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Nobody questioned Fed's fitness or body fat. Playing that well at the age of 32 tells you something about his physical condition. To be in the GOAT discussion in a physical sport like tennis, you would have to be super fit. It's all relative terms, I guess. Compared to some of the other athletes, I mean. Also the pictures you provided were before back injury. Not so relevant in this discussion anyway. Some of the pictures from KineticChain are interesting though. I still can't believe how the body shape can look so different with little tricks, and I will look into that a bit more to gain some more knowledge on that. If those picture were indeed taken within an hour, all those weight control advertisers should be sued. Very interesting issue to be looked into carefully, I guess.

Anyway, it is silly to question Federer's fitness level. He has not had that many major injury problems considering how long he has been on top level, which is amazing, and to have achieved that, he must have looked after his body really well.

Keep in mind that it all depends on what day it is...when it comes to how well they are acting towards people they don't know. They are just like us, we wake in a different mood sometimes and just don't feel like dealing with the world.

Went to WTA event, noticed how big their hands are in contrast to the normal woman' hands. Some looked normal size.

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I agree. If you meet them when they are happy, you may get treated much better.

People are clueless about this type of thing. Fed has very low bf %. He appears "tubby' in that image because he is completely relaxed/slouching and lighting

The 5 pictures below were all taken minutes apart:

It's lighting, angle, posture, tensing, salt intake, ect. can affect how you look at any particular instance.You can read an article about this here. It is a very big aspect of all the before+after pics you see with weight loss junk.

Fed is always unusually relaxed/slouched. That is why he looks that way.

When he's not slouching he has a slim athletic build

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All I know is my best friend as a child, who was always skinny, could make her stomach look like she had a beer belly on demand. She was nicknamed watermelon, cause the was such a difference in size, and was under 5 feet tall at the time.

walked next to Sampras at wimbledon years ago on his way to a court. he was like a panther. everyone just moved out of his way (obviously) but you got the sense that he was totally full of potential energy, like a coiled spring. he walked really really slowly.

its like he had strong forearms but from the elbow to shoulder was a rubbery whippy tube. blake on the other hand looked like most of his joints were purely aesthetic purposes. his arms seemed like they never wanted to bend and he was almost topheavy. (i know we'll mention the back issue) but even the way he walked he was soooo much on his toes that it seemed like he wanted to topple foreward. i can see from his body cadence why he always wanted to take the ball early. he doesn't look like he'd be comfortable moving backward for anything. just lean on the ball and spank it. blake is solidly build . sharapova was huge with shoulders 4 feet wide with an olive for a head compared to the shoulder size. roddick was broader then i though. becker seemed like he could shoot fire from his chest like a superhearo.